School environment should be free from fear: PM

NEW DELHI: With some incidents of harsh punishments meted out to children apparently weighing heavy on his mind, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the school environment should be "free from fear, trauma and anxiety" to make the Right to Education (RTE) a grand national movement.

"The RTE Act bans corporal punishment and mental harassment. It also bans detention and expulsion. These provisions have led many teachers to question how discipline will be maintained in the classroom," he said.

Addressing the National Award winning teachers at his residence on the eve of Teacher's Day, Singh said that no child, irrespective of caste, gender or community should dread the thought of going to school.

Every year September 5, the birth anniversary of former President Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, is celebrated as Teacher's Day.

He said that the answer to the issue of maintaining discipline was given by philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti who said, "Discipline is an easy way to control a child, but it does not help him to understand the problems involved in living...If the teacher can give full attention to each child, observing and helping him, then compulsion or domination or discipline in any form may be unnecessary".

Noting that the government was committed to providing quality education to all, Singh said that time has come to ensure that every child in the country has the opportunity to exercise his or her right to an education of equitable quality and making the RTE a "grand national movement".

"The educational system in our country is at a very critical juncture," the Prime Minister said stressing the need to maintain the fine balance between tradition and continuity between tradition and modernity on the one hand, and innovation and change on the other.

Observing that teachers as front-line participants in educational reforms and nation's "most precious national resource", he said, "Sadly, teachers are often excluded from policy-making, governance and management of our educational system as also from day-to-day instructional strategies and decision making.